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Cruiseliners move away from 'security-porous' V&A
In a recent statement, PoliticsWeb reports, Councillor Grant Pascoe, mayoral committee member for tourism, events and marketing, said that the City of Cape Town "notes with concern" the potential negative impact that the Department of Home Affairs' recent ruling barring cruise liners from the V&A Waterfront will have on tourism.
"The Department [...] ruled that passenger liners will no longer be allowed to dock in the V&A Waterfront," Pascoe said, "With immediate effect, all passenger liners are to dock in the secured Duncan Dock." Pascoe felt "uneasy about the possible impact of this ruling on Cape Town's status and reputation as a cruise tourism destination as well as on tourism revenues to the city."
Answering to media questions on the issue, Tariq Mellet, director immigration: maritime & aviation ports, Western Cape, Department of Home Affairs (DHA), said Pascoe got his basic facts wrong. "Jetty 2 at V&A Waterfront has not been the regular docking berth for cruise ships," Mellet said, "but has been occasionally used when E Berth in Duncan Dock or Eastern Mole has not been used, simply as a matter of commercial convenience by the Port Authority and Shipping Agents." In terms of the SA law, Mellet said in a PoliticsWeb statement, only the minister of Home Affairs can declare which ports can be 'International Ports of Entry to the Republic' for the purpose of landing and clearing foreign persons and foreign conveyances into South Africa. This is also an international practice.
"Nowhere in the world are people and vessels allowed to just enter any national territory willy-nilly where they please." The DHA had to weigh carefully the need to ensure that Cape Town Harbour is a welcoming port to visitors as well as a secure port of entry, where immigration security is being dealt with in keeping with legislation. "The V&A Waterfront is a non-secured private enterprise commercial zone with general public access and is a recreational and retail multi-purpose entity," Mellet said. "Home Affairs has taken an important step [...] in the interest of South Africa, our foreign visitors and economic development and growth of passenger tourism in an area where there has been a lot of muddying of the waters by narrow local interests in Cape Town Harbour and also by syndicates who find it convenient to have security-porous harbours."
Read the full article on www.politicsweb.co.za.
Read Grant Pascoe's statement.
